Home made plane better than Stanley

[Bencuri]

Well, the title may sound clickbait, but it is true, LOL

Anyway, seriously speaking: this is a technique I learnt here many years ago and I was amazed it works so well. So the basic problem:

[attachment=50208]

This is how a normal Stanley smoother cuts the kiln dried black locust: this wood has often grain direction changes in it, kiln drying makes it brittle, and even if you set the plane to extra fine cut, it does create tear out. Though they are very shallow, and much more tolerable than with a normally set plane, in case of which you could see massive holes where you can see those light white spots now. However this outcome is not very good for high grade work.

And now comes my plane. I have made one like this many years ago, but it got lost. Credits for the idea go to Norsewoodsmith, whose planemaking articles inspired me to make one. And the technology comes from your comments here from the same period: some here suggested a 60 degree smoother can solve this issue. The interesting is: it does not only make a nicer surface, but something that is very odd: even back than and now these planes that I made myself cut much better than any plane I owned. Blade gets cutting easier, doesn't tend to jump that much on grain direction changes, easier to push, it is pulling itself into the cut. I don't know why that is, but all in all I am amazed how well these home made ones can work, and indeed you can see the 60 degree of blade angle works:

[attachment=50209]

And interestingly it was done with a thicker shaving and large mouth opening than in case of the Stanley smoother. I made a mistake though because I should have create a smaller mouth opening, but it works even like that as it is now, however this way you must be extremely careful not to push the plane too fast because then it will tear the wood out, too. But if you push carefully, it does a nice job even with the oddly large opening. And no chipbreaker!

Here is this toy anyway:

[attachment=50207]

Horn hand carved!

If you are interested in how I made it, I will upload an article about it soon to my website. If the admins allow it, I will post the link here. So check back if interested. 

[Nordic]

Awesome!

Looking forward to reading your article!

[wmickley]

If you are having tearout problems with the Stanley plane, something is very wrong.

[Bencuri]

If you are having tearout problems with the Stanley plane, something is very wrong.

It depends. I am not a woodworking expert. Though I have gained an extensive knowledge compared to most of the people about hand tools. I don't say it is not possible to plane without tearout with a normal Stanley, but the circumstance and the situation also matters, or practicality. Here is an example to consider:

Where I live, I don't have access to quality handtools. Everything that represents quality, I need to order it from abroad, that means I pay almost double the price than what you pay for it in the US, at the same time my monthly salary is about 1/5 of the average salary in the US. I don't have any chance to get those advanced sharpening tools that you have there. Like a Tormek, advanced diamond stones, etc. So what remains are the basic things I can get here. And I can assure you that if you consider hobbists in the hole world, not only in the US, they are like me, considering financial an technological situations in most countries.

This situation results in that most people in the world won't have the tools to sharpen their plane blades to that scientifically precise sharpness that are shown in most Youtube pro woodworking videos. And in this circumstance, a plane that can cut without tearout even if not sharp to the micron, can be a game changer. 

However even this is questionable. Another thing is even if you can sharpen to microscopic precision, how long that fine edge will last? Black locust is very challenging to work with, blades prone to get dull fast, and it does matter if you can work longer on it with a plane that doesn't need to be dead sharp or you need to be sharpening to that precision sharpness all day. 

So the question how easy and economical to do a task also matters.

[Derek Cohen]

Ben, firstly, that is a fine looking plane you have made.

In regard to performnce, for an experienced hand plane user, as with Warren (mwickley) and many others here, just one look at the set up of a plane can say much. In the case of your plane and a Stanley - regardless of how good a performance you are achieving - it is possible to reach a hypothesis why your plane is working better at this moment.

This is my hypothesis, and I assume Warren's as well: your plane has a single blade - no chipbreaker - and is possibly bedded at around 50-55 degrees. Assuming blade sharpness is the same, a Stanley - set up with the chipbreaker pulled back by 1mm ir more - cannot plane as well into reversing grain as it is bedded lower. However - this is the point - the Stanley, with a closed up chipbreaker (roughly 0.4mm from the edge) with the leading of the chipbreaker shaped to 70-80 degrees, will plane reversing grain effortlessly. It is all in the set up of the Stanley.

The question is whether your plane is indeed a single blade, and whether you have used the Stanley with a closed chipbreaker? If this is all new to you, then you are in for a treat


Regards from Perth

Derek

[blackhat]

Nice. An old design that works fine and doesn’t suffer from Stanley’s annoying blade chatter. One of the beauties of that design is that you can still tighten the mouth by inserting a patch or shimming the bed.

[Pedder]

Hi Ben,

that is a cool plane! Close to a scraper plane.
The "better than Stanley" is indeed a clickbait title. But it worked!

Take Care,
Pedder

[MauleSkinner]

The two relevant comments I have:

1. Beautiful plane!

2. Regardless of the reasons why, it works better than your Stanley, which makes for better, more pleasurable woodworking.

My first shop made plane was an improvement over my Stanley, probably for the same reasons, and they’ve simply gotten better over time due to improved sharpening and techniques. I could probably make a Stanley work quite well at this point, too, but why?

[Timberwolf]

The two relevant comments I have:

1. Beautiful plane!

2. Regardless of the reasons why, it works better than your Stanley, which makes for better, more pleasurable woodworking.

My first shop made plane was an improvement over my Stanley, probably for the same reasons, and they’ve simply gotten better over time due to improved sharpening and techniques. I could probably make a Stanley work quite well at this point, too, but why?

...........
I made this little guy about twenty years ago out of scrap pallet wood..It has a tight mouth and works as well as my metal blocks.

[CStan]

If it works, ignore the naysayers who insist that the Stanley is the be all and end all and that you've stored up trouble in the future for yourself by not using one.

You've made a plane.  It works.  Use it.

Never subordinate your judgement to others.  If a tool does what you need it do, that's all you should ask of it.

Maybe, just maybe, we'll get through this one without another bloody, damned treatise on the cap iron. Before you know it, it'll get credit for curing cancer.